Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon today for a North American summit overshadowed by the raging drug war in Mexico and violence on the U.S. border

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon today for a North American summit overshadowed by the raging drug war in Mexico and violence on the U.S. border.

Harper is attending the sixth so-called Three Amigos Summit at the White House for talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which seeks to more closely integrate the economies of the three countries.

Today’s summit is scheduled to last only a few hours: the three leaders and their top aides will meet, then Obama will host Harper and Calderon for lunch. The three will then meet in private, and conclude the event by holding a joint press conference.

Although no major agreements are expected to be signed at the summit, it’s expected the three leaders will emerge from the talks pledging to improve North America’s economic growth and competitiveness on the global stage.

Experts on Canada-U.S.-Mexico relations say the summit comes at a critical time as spiralling violence along the U.S.-Mexican border casts a pall over trade, with drug cartels fighting for control of routes into the U.S. and Mexico complaining of arms purchased in the United States flowing south.

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Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat, said in an interview that efforts to create a “trilateral” arrangement have waned in recent years and are now on “life-support”.

“I’m a believer in it,” he said of the need for a meaningful pact.

“But there is a sense among the Americans and some Mexicans that Canada takes a lukewarm approach to this.”

At the same time, notes Robertson, the Mexicans have been “distracted” by their campaign to fight drug cartels, while the Americans have crept back toward trade protectionism in the wake of the recession.

Still, he said the three countries could see significant advances to their economies, if only they would make progress in the areas of energy, labour mobility (so that more workers can cross borders), and transportation (so that goods can be trucked more quickly between the three nations).

David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., said in an interview that the Three Amigos Summit serves a useful purpose.

“Our economies are inextricably linked together,” said Biette.

“Because we trade so much together and work so much together on continental security, it’s important to get together and touch base and make sure we’re all on the same page and see what the challenges are ahead for us.”

The summit also gives Obama a chance to strengthen his support among U.S. Hispanic voters. Polls show he already has strong support among U.S. Hispanics, the bulk of whom are Mexican-American.

Through NAFTA, Canada is the largest market for U.S. exports, followed by Mexico. The United States in turn is the largest market for both Mexican and Canadian exports.

Separately, security cooperation has been increasing between the three nations.

Closer ties began with the $1.6 billion Merida Initiative, which Calderon signed in 2008 with then-US president George W. Bush. The initiative provides funds for anti-drug operations in both Mexico and Central America.

On March 27, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta met in Ottawa with Defence Minister Peter Mackay and the heads of Mexico’s army and navy to discuss anti-narcotics operations.

“This is the first time we’ve done it, but certainly from the U.S. perspective, we would hope it could be institutionalized, because these challenges are not going away,” a senior U.S. defence official traveling with Panetta said.

Calderon turned the Mexican military loose on drug trafficking cartels immediately upon taking office in 2006, but the violence has only grown, with the toll from drug-related violence rising to more than 50,000 people over that period.

Calderon leaves office in December after six years as president, with strong support in Washington for the policies he pursued.

But the Obama administration is already preparing for the future, and the possible victory of Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico’s July 1 presidential election.

Recent polls show Pena Nieto with a commanding lead over the conservative National Action Party (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, with the leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a distant third.

The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years until the PAN’s Vicente Fox was elected president in 2000. Calderon is only the country’s second PAN president.

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